AMD Gets @AMD Twitter Handle in Charity Donation Swap

In a move that has been a long time coming, AMD has finally decided that they are going to be serious about social media and take over the Twitter handle @AMD. Originally, AMD went by the god awful and complicated twitter handle @AMD_Unprocessed, which seemed both amateur and unprofessional until you realize that @AMD was already taken by a tech entrepreneur by the name of Adam M. Doppelt or A.M.D.

This problem, in my opinion has been one of the things that has kept AMD from effectively communicating with the Twitter audience. I mean, most people are going to have no idea that AMD’s twitter handle is @AMD_Unprocessed, that’s just stupid. People are going to tweet @AMD if they’re happy or sad about a product or something related to the company and because AMD didn’t have @AMD the communication channel between them and many of their customers has been broken.

Ever since I started to take Twitter seriously a few years ago, I’ve been telling AMD executives that they need to take back the @AMD handle and start taking Twitter seriously. Currently, they only have 20,000 followers on their @AMD handle, which I can attribute much of to the original @AMD_Unprocessed twitter handle since most people had no idea where to look. If one were to go and search "AMD" their main Twitter account doesn’t even turn up in the top 6 profiles. In fact, AMD’s own @AMDRadeon has more follower than almost all of their other accounts combined, which, to me seems beyond ridiculous for a multi-billion dollar company.

I fully understand that AMD is nowhere near as big as Intel and I don’t expect @AMD to have over 1.5 million followers on Twitter. But now AMD can put their @AMD hastag everywhere without taking up much space. Putting @AMD_Unprocessed is not only long, but it’s also unsightly. With @AMD I hope that we will see AMD finally taking social media seriously and growing their core audience in a way that allows them to get out the message and to interact with their end users.

So, what did Adam and AMD agree to? AMD agreed to donate and split $50,000 to two different charities in the Greater Seattle Area in order to get the @AMD handle from Adam. Since Adam is a tech entrepreneur himself and doesn’t necessarily need AMD’s hardware or money, he offered to give it to them if they donated the $50,000 to the charities of his choice. It looks like AMD bit and not only got the Twitter handle they’ve needed for years, but they’ve also managed to donate to two good causes, the Boys and Girls Club of Bellevue and Farestart.